This is a trip report covering a Baltic Duel I did to get to and from Amsterdam in November 2012.

The story behind this trip begins in the early fall of 2012, I received an e-mail from airBaltic with a voucher worth 20 EUR to use on any BT flights. With BT flights ex-ARN to Europe usually being quite cheap in the first place, this was quite a good opportunity to do some flying.

I looked at some options, and found ARN-RIX-AMS at 50 EUR a good choice. I quickly booked it for 20 November for a grand total of 30 EUR after using my voucher.
Scheduled equipment for both legs was 733 at the time of booking.

I had been to Amsterdam before, but arriving at 10:55 I figured I might as well spend the rest of that day in Amsterdam and then fly back home the next morning.

The cheapest option to get back home was also my preferred option, Estonian Air via Tallinn. 75 EUR was paid for the two legs.
Scheduled equipment was CRJ900 for both legs at the time of booking.

The booked routing, showed with the help of Great Circle Mapper:

This also provided me with the interesting opportunity to compare the two, at the time competing, Baltic airlines in a Baltic duel.

In between the time of booking and the time of travel OV announced a lot of changes to their strategy and business model. Luckily my flights remained unchanged, except for the fact that they went full BOB.

The only equipment change during the interval booking to travel date was my ARN-RIX flight which was changed to a Dash 8-Q400, which I didn't mind to the B733, even though I would have preferred an F50 or B735.

Soon the date of travel arrived and the Baltic Duel could begin.

Let's get ready to rumble!

November 20

With a departure time of 6:45 I arrived at Arlanda Terminal 5 some minutes before 6:00.

Dark outside and feeling sleepy I entered the check-in hall and found the BT check-in desks where there were no queue. I asked for window seats, which was granted for both legs, and I was quickly checked in.

Security didn't have much queue at all and I was quickly through the security checkpoint next to Sky City.

I snapped one or two pictures airside before I ended up at gate 6B (which is a usual BT gate at ARN), waiting for boarding to commence for this morning’s flight to Riga.

Christmas lights:

Gate 6B:

I also went to a nearby window to see what aircraft would be my ride to be to Riga, turns out YL-BAJ would do the honors. This was to be my third flight on the bird, after flying her on UME-VAA-RIX in August of 2012 ( AirBaltic In Business: ARN-UME-VAA-RIX-LIN/BGY-NYO(by deltamartin Sep 19 2012 in Trip Reports) ).

BT104ARN-RIX
Dash 8-400
YL-BAJ

Soon boarding commenced and I was among the first 5 or so to scan my BP at the gate and walk downstairs out to the apron next to the aircraft. A good photo-op, of course.

I climbed aboard and was greeted by the male FA in the front galley. I made my way to my window seat 17F towards the back.

The seat was pretty comfy, decent legroom for a prop.

The view outside is dominated by the Dash’s engine, of course.

The load was pretty good at an estimated 80%.

Safety demo, pushback and commence of taxiing followed.

We did a typical Dash takeoff from runway 19L after a few minutes of taxiing.

A bank to the left followed, lining us up towards Riga.

Cabin view after takeoff:

Seatpocket contents:

Once we had climbed to cruise altitude and the seatbelt sign had been turned off and all that, the crew begun their service round. Once they reached my row I decided to buy a Chicken and Vegetable Cup a Soup. Quite tasty, and suited me good at that hour. The price was 3.50 EUR.

I spent the rest of the flight just snoozing, it was still quite early after all.

I ‘woke up’ at the beginning of descent. It had (unsurprisingly) become quite a lot brighter outside by that time.

We soon dived down beneath the clouds.

Touchdown on runway 18 followed.

I managed to score my first smoky tires shot:

After braking and leaving the runway we taxied to a remote stand south of the terminal.

Deboarding and entering the bus was done in an orderly fashion. I thanked the crew as I left the aircraft.

We soon drove off to the terminal where we were dropped off. Baggage claim was straight ahead after entering the building, and transfers were to the left. Me, like most other people, went towards transfers.

Up the stairs one goes and one finds oneself in the transit area.

Since my ARN-RIX flight originally was scheduled on a jet aircraft my time at RIX had shrunken, so as soon as I found myself a FIDS to see where to go, it already said Go to Gate. So to gate B4 was where I headed next.

I snapped a picture of RIX’s main pier on my way there.

As I arrived at gate B4 boarding had already begun, so I first snapped a picture of my ride to be before joining the queue.

Some queuing had to be done in the jetway to be able to enter the aircraft.

Another BT ’37 at a neighboring gate:

Soon enough I was onboard the aircraft and I was greeted by the usual BT girls in the front galley.

Once I reached my seat 10F, which I had been assigned by the check-in lady at ARN that morning, I realized it was the row in front of the emergency exit row, which meant no recline. That’s a bugger considering that I was planning on trying to spend most of this flight in dreamland.

Otherwise the seat had decent comfort and decent legroom.

Luckily the middle seat stayed open, which was a nice consolation for the non-existent recline.

View out my window:

The load was pretty good though, estimated at around 75%.

Soon enough boarding was completed and the crew performed their safety demonstration and we pushed back.

We begun taxiing and passed some interesting equipment on the way. The RIX Fokker farm:

Leaving the terminal behind:

More interesting equipment:

Soon enough we reached the same runway 18 that I had touched down on less than an hour earlier, and we took off in a fairly powerful fashion.

Shortly after takeoff we entered the land of the clouds, and soon after that we emerged above said land.

We also did some banking to line us up towards AMS.

Soon enough we reached height safe enough for the captain to turn of the seatbelt sign. This was followed by the crew beginning to prepare the BOB round.

Cabin view:

Once they reached my row I decided to buy some snack sausages and a bottle of sparkling water. These cost 2.50 EUR each.

The sausages were pretty tasty and the sparkling water was sparkling water.

After indulging my purchases I decided to attempt to get some shuteye, as it was just overcast outside anyway.

I snapped a winglet shot before I turned off my brain though:

After a two digit number of minutes had passed I felt descent being commenced, this was my sign to open my eyes and look out the window.

Soon enough we ended up beneath the clouds.

A dam was showing, so we were definitely in the Netherlands.

Some banking followed, we were in a holding pattern. And all of a sudden I spotted this beautiful Tu-154 beneath us, on approach for AMS:

It was really cool, and I managed to snap one more picture of it before it disappeared from my sight.

After this, some more banking followed. The landscape was typically Dutch:

We soon lined up next to this KL 737:

This was also very cool, as I’d get to experience my first parallel approach.

A winglet shot with the KL 737 showing as well:

I realized that the KL bird was on approach for the infamous Polderbaan, which meant that we were landing on 18C, also known as Zwanenburgbaan.

Polderbaan visible:

The KL 737 touched down on 18R before us.

But shortly after we also touched down, on 18C.

We left the runway at a high-speed exit and begun taxiing towards the B-pier. Turkish was also in town:

Taxiing above a motorway:

Welcome to AMS, where Fokkers park on roofs!

It didn’t take too long to reach our gate, just a few minutes, and we docked to jetway gate B19, at the end of the B-pier.

Parked next to a Transavia 737:

Deboarding was commenced and done in an orderly manner. I thanked the crew as I left the aircraft.

My seat after the flight:

Taken from the jetway:

In the B-pier:

I walked through the terminal to baggage reclaim and arrivals (quite the distance when arriving at the end of the B-pier!).

Why, thank you!

A triholer spotted!

No bags to pick up for me so I was landside in no time.

Before heading in to town I paid a visit to the Panorama terrace.

The F100 really is a nice touch:

And the panorama terrace obviously offers some great views as well:

Next I went to Schiphol Plaza where I purchased myself a one-way ticket to Amsterdam Centraal.

Downstairs to the platform I went next where I didn’t have to wait for long for the next train to depart.

Once at Centraal…
…I took the next tram to Leidseplein, where my hotel was located.

I had chosen Best Western Leidse Square Hotel for my night in Amsterdam, mainly due to the cheap price of less than 45 EUR for the night, and the pretty good location. Façade picture taken the morning after:

I got room nr. 1 in the basement, but there were still windows for the daylight to come in, so it was all right by me.

The room was nice and clean and had the standard amenities. WiFi was also included.

I spent my day just wandering around in Amsterdam. Here are some impressions:

Westerkerk:

A very Dutch picture:

My lunch, Asian style:

I also visited Anne Franke’s house, since there were no queue whatsoever to get in, unlike last time I was here.

In the evening I also met up with A.Net user adamspotter, or Brendan. We had a few beers and chatted for a while. It was great meeting you Brendan, let me know if you’re ever in Sweden again, and the beer’s on me!

A fairly early wakeup call at around 5:30 was waiting for me with a departure ex-AMS at 9:40.

I proceeded by doing my morning rituals before checking out of the hotel around 6:00.

This time I decided to take a bus from Leidseplein to Schiphol. It was convenient and it only cost me 4 EUR, travel time was about 40 minutes.

Waiting for the bus at Leidseplein in the early morning:

I arrived outside of Schiphol Plaza in good time before my departure.

Quite nice Christmas decoration here:

I’m not so sure about this one though…

So I leisurely made my way to the check in area for OV in departure hall 3.

When I arrived the OV check-in desks were in the progress of opening, so I was waiting for a couple of minutes before I could go to the desk.
I had checked in online the night before so all I needed was BP’s. This was quickly handled and I also enquired if there was a lounge available, the check in lady took another look at my EuroBonus card and then wrote me a lounge invitation to the Servisair lounge.

Next I went to departure hall 2, where security to the B-pier (among others), where my flight to TLL would depart, was located.

FIDS:

Security had a 5-minute queue or so, so it didn’t take very long for me to get airside.

Once airside, I looked around for a little while.

Morning view over the apron:

Schengen part of the D-pier:

I’d like to visit this lounge some day:

C-pier:

Then I decided to go look for the lounge. Which was easier said than done, considering that the check-in agent had written that I had access to lounge number 21 on my lounge invitation, which is a lounge that doesn’t exist.

Sooner or later though I realized that she must have meant lounge 26, so that’s where I headed.

I handed my lounge invitation to the lounge dragon, who wanted to see my EuroBonus card again, since my number wasn’t written on the invitation, as it should be. Seems like the check-in agent wasn’t at her best on this day.

I was soon let in without any further issues though.

The lounge was quite nice with some decent edible offerings during this breakfast-hour.

So I had some breakfast and used the provided WiFi for a while.

Soon enough I decided to head to the gate though.

B3 was the gate assigned for OV174 this morning. It’s a bus gate downstairs in the B-pier.

Again it was quite a walk to get there.

The Fokker Farm as seen from the B-pier:

The downstairs bus-gate area was quite busy with several flights getting ready for boarding and lots of people around.

Gate B3:

I like these info-screens at the gates:

I waited for a while and soon enough boarding was called for my flight to Tallinn.

OV174AMS-TLL
CRJ-900ES-ACD

The bus drove us around to the other side of the B-pier, at the edge of the Fokker farm, where our blue CR9 was parked in between a flyBe Dash 8 and this Adria CRJ in a special livery:

We were held in the bus for a minute or two before being given the thumbs up from the cabin crew to commence boarding.

The Estonian Air livery sure is beautiful, and the CRJ-900 is a long and sleek bird:

I was greeted by the Estonian female FA working in the front galley as I boarded the aircraft.

For this flight I had chosen a seat towards the front of the aircraft, so 6F is where I headed.

The dark blue fake leather seat was pretty comfy, legroom was okay.

The annoying thing with this seat was the terrible alignment with the window though, I had to twist my neck quite a lot in an awkward and annoying angle to look out. Picture taken after the flight:

View out my window:

The load for this flight was good, I couldn’t spot a single open seat in the economy class cabin, which of course meant that I had a seatmate as well.

The crew preformed a manual safety demo and we soon got moving.

Taxiing didn’t take too long, as runway 24, also known as Kaagbaan, was the runway of choice for departures this morning.

We soon reached the runway threshold and commenced our take-off roll. It wasn’t done in a very powerful fashion.

After takeoff we banked to the right quite early though, treating me with some nice views over Schiphol.

Polderbaan at the bottom, it really is quite far away from the terminals!

Soon enough we climbed up and above the clouds and after that it didn’t take long before we reached cruise.

There weren’t much more views of the ground after this, and in addition to that my window was fairly scratched, which became much more evident as ice crystals began to form.

As mentioned earlier, this was my first OV flight with full-BOB. But for this flight I didn’t bother with it as I was quite tired and had already eaten in the lounge.

Here are the seat pocket contents:

I looked through the In-Flight magazine early in the flight. Mr. Taskila had been fired shortly before this picture was taken:

Cabin view:

I spent most of the flight just slumbering, trying to get some sleep.

The little jet made good progress with its good load and soon enough it was time for descent, Tallinn was also quite cloudy on this day.

But soon enough we were beneath the clouds and on approach for runway 26.

Where we touched down a few minutes later.

Landing on runway 26 meant a very short taxi to the terminal.

We parked at a jetway equipped gate but we still deboarded down to the apron using the CRJ’s built in stairs.
Fairly odd considering I recall seeing OV’s CRJ’s use jetways at TLL before?

I thanked the crew as I left the aircraft and snapped a photo of ES-ACD from the apron, I like how it turned out:

Next I went upstairs and in to the terminal, I checked the FIDS which said that my flight to ARN would leave from gate 6:

Where this was parked:

ES-ACB. Hopefully it would stay there, so I wouldn’t get ES-ACD again.

TLL was TLL, the terminal wasn’t very busy on this Wednesday.

Since it was still some 30 minutes or so until scheduled boarding I went to the lounge.

I was let in without any problems.

The Linda Lounge had pretty much the same offerings as last time I was here; drinks of all sorts including hard liquors, and some lighter snacks. They had small triangle sandwiches also though, which was new to me.

Lounge also has some apron views:

Soon enough boarding time approached and I went to the gate, where I had to wait for a couple of minutes before we were let down to the apron, where ES-ACB still were parked for our flight to Stockholm.

Gate area:

OV123TLL-ARN
CRJ-900ES-ACB

I’m greeted by the male Estonian FA working in the front galley as I enter the cabin.

For this flight I had chosen a seat behind the wings, so 19F was where I was heading.

The seat comfort and legroom was the same back there as on 6F, but the seat alignment to the windows, while not perfect, were way better. Which my neck was very thankful for.

View out my window:

Interesting visitor:

The load was a more comfortable 60% or so for this flight, so I had an open seat next to me.

The crew preformed the manual safety demonstration and we soon pushed back.

Runway 26 was also used for takeoffs on this day, so a “lengthy” taxi of five or so minutes followed before we reached the runways threshold.

We then begun our takeoff roll.

TLL terminal:

A runway 26 departure means a nice view over central Tallinn for those seated on the right hand side of the aircraft, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Cabin view during climb:

We then climbed up and above the clouds, the seatbelt sign was turned off and cruise height were soon reached as well.

For this flight I decided to buy myself a bag of beef jerky from the BOB selection. It was tasty, but you didn’t get very much meat for the 3 EUR it cost me.

Sky Bar:

I spent the rest of the flight just relaxing, watching out my window and listening to some music.

I do like winglet shots:

I also visited the toilet, which also resulted in me being able to snap this lavatorial picture:

And on the way back to my seat I took this cabin picture:

Soon enough descent was commenced somewhere over the sea east of Stockholm.

It soon became pretty evident that we’d be landing on runway 26.

Here’s a shot of a little place called Rimbo:

Soon enough we touched down on runway 26 as expected, and we taxied to the A-pier of Terminal 5.

Scenes at ARN:

It was nice to see a Classic, since this picture was taken all ARN-based MD’s has been retired:

We parked at gate 4, which is equipped with stairs to the apron, as the jetway is too low for our CRJ.

Deboarding in progress:

I thanked the crew as I left the aircraft:

I then walked up to the terminal and snapped this last picture of the plane that brought me here from Tallinn:

And then my little Baltic Duel to Amsterdam had come to an end.

Baltic Duel: Summary

Round 1: Booking
Result: Tied
Both airlines website were equally simple to book at, nothing extravagant but no issues.

Round 2: Fare
Result: BT wins
30 EUR for two flights is pretty much unbeatable, but BT would still win with 50 EUR vs. 75 EUR without the voucher.

Round 3: Check-in
Result: Tied
I had to abort my attempt at online check-in on my BT flights, since I for some reason didn’t find the way to choose my seats, which I am fairly sure I was able to do freely on previous BT flights where OLCI was available. I was given window seats during check-in at ARN without any problems.OV OLCI worked like a charm ex-AMS on the KL webpage, but I can’t give this point to OV since the check-in agent in AMS didn’t do her job very well. Had to remind her about lounge voucher, wrong lounge number, didn’t fill in the lounge voucher properly and I had to retro register my flights to get the miles, despite filling in my FF# during booking and handing over my card at the desk.

Round 4: Aircraft
Result: OV wins
I found the CRJ’s of OV more comfortable than the Dash 8/733 combo on BT.

Round 5: Cabin Crew
Result: Tied
Both airlines’ crews were polite and did their jobs. Nothing out of the ordinary from either airline.

Round 6: Service onboard
Result: BT wins
Both airlines are BOB, but I found BT’s selection better, more innovative and cheaper.

Round 7: Hub Airport
Result: OV wins
Both TLL and RIX are nice, modern, small and easy to navigate terminal. I personally prefer TLL though so I have to give the point to OV.

Round 8: Frequent Flyer Perks
Result: OV winsOV uses SK’s EuroBonus while BT has their own Baltic Miles. As a frequent SK traveler I have to give this point to OV.
Also, the points earned on Baltic Miles are based on how much you spend on your ticket, which I’m not a fan of.

Round 9: Travel time
Result: Tied
Both trips were scheduled for 4hr 10mins, and all flights were on time.

Result:BT: 2OV: 3

This is a comparison of BT and OV as seen from my perspective on these select flights.
And as mention, OV has since changed their strategy radically, which makes this comparison pretty much useless for the future.

Thank you all for reading this trip report of mine. Any feedback or comments are highly appreciated.

My next report shall cover my trip to Portugal and the Azores, with a short Airbus widebody.

Good to read about this little jaunt to Amsterdam and even better that you were able to enjoy some local a.net company. A good idea to compare BT & OV on this trip. It's always a pleasure to admire Estonian's Air beautiful livery and the lounge at TLL also looks good - those striped chairs are great.

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): looked at some options, and found ARN-RIX-AMS at 50 EUR a good choice. I quickly booked it for 20 November for a grand total of 30 EUR after using my voucher

That's the reason why I don't like the Dashs. So many bad seats on these birds.

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter):Once they reached my row I decided to buy some snack sausages and a bottle of sparkling water. These cost 2.50 EUR each.

Interesting, I would try these sausages, too.

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter):
Some banking followed, we were in a holding pattern. And all of a sudden I spotted this beautiful Tu-154 beneath us, on approach for AMS:

Cool picture!

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter):The annoying thing with this seat was the terrible alignment with the window though, I had to twist my neck quite a lot in an awkward and annoying angle to look out. Picture taken after the flight:

What a good idea to perform this duel battle! Nice story and pics demonstrate that both carriers in fact are quite close to each other. Sad thing though to see OV going totally BOB, I remember us getting a free and warm muffin on a certain flight from ARN to TLL once

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): Once I reached my seat 10F, which I had been assigned by the check-in lady at ARN that morning, I realized it was the row in front of the emergency exit row, which meant no recline. That’s a bugger considering that I was planning on trying to spend most of this flight in dreamland.

Oh, how annoying, the worst window on the plane.

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): Some banking followed, we were in a holding pattern. And all of a sudden I spotted this beautiful Tu-154 beneath us, on approach for AMS:

Wow, how lucky

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): The annoying thing with this seat was the terrible alignment with the window though, I had to twist my neck quite a lot in an awkward and annoying angle to look out. Picture taken after the flight:

This is something I find on nearly all C-jets and E-jets....somewhere along the aisle there'll be seats that completely miss the windows.

Looks like you've been doing quite a bit of flying lately. So thanks for posting this one and the comparison between Air Baltic and Estonian. I've been meaning to try both airlines but somehow so far it's never happened. Some day perhaps. I just have one question about Estonian. Is the CRJ intended as a replacement for the Embraers or are the two types operated side by side? Just seems a bit unusual to have both types in the fleet of such a small carrier, especially given that the Embraer is, in my view, the much superior product.